With the next and last Lord of the Rings movie coming out toward the end of this two month challenge period, we felt a Lord of the Rings challenge would be fun!

So, here we go!

LORD OF THE GENRES!

Your task is to convey a Lord of the Rings character, creature, and/or environment in ANY genre/style EXCEPT fantasy/medieval!

Spaghetti-Western Gandalf!
Sci-Fi Aragorn!
Horror-themed Sauron!

Endless possibilities! Be creative!

Guidelines:
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1) It can be high-res or game low-res. Textures, rigging, animation/posing, etc is NOT required. The more you are able to do, however, the more favorable your entry will be! If you do game low-res, let us know your polycount!

2) Display concept, wireframes, textures used, work in progress, etc. throughout the challenge.

3)You can choose any character, location, or creature from the books or the movies (Tom Bombadil, anyone? ) Please do not grab photos of the movie's actors to use as textures. You will not necessarily be penalized if you do.

4)One big rule, though: If you do a character, keep defining characteristics of that character in-tact! Frodo with the One ring and the blade, Sting. Gandalf with his staff. Gimli's axe. Legolas' bow. Aragorn's sword. Etc. If a character is a evil character in the book/movie, keep him that way. And vice versa with the good.

Feel free to redesign these character-defining items to fit along with your chosen genre/style, but do not, for example, replace a sci-fi Aragorn's sword with a laser gun. Now, you CAN give sci-fi Aragorn a laser gun, but do so in ADDITION to his sci-fi sword.

5) NAME YOUR THREAD CORRECTLY! Failure to do so will result in your thread being deleted. If that happens, feel free to repost in the correct format:

Nov/Dec - Character/Creature/Environment - Chosen Genre - Your Name - Norm/Noob

Example:
Nov/Dec - Character/Creature - Horror - mtmckinley - Norm

As shown in the above example, you CAN do more than one. Hope you finish.

Your class distinction is soley up to you! Choose Noobie or Normal. Keep in mind that if your quality of work is HUGELY blatantly the opposite of what you chose as your class, you may be asked to reverse it. That's not happend before, though, so I wouldn't worry about it. And it mostly applies to those who are really good entering as "noob" in order to blow the other noobs out of the water.

6) Let us know what character/creature/environment and genre you choose in your first post! If you change your mind later, that's fine.
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If fewer than FIVE people submit a final entry come the end of this challenge, only points will be given as a prize. We cannot afford to give out actual prizes like we have planned if not enough people put in the effort to finish. So, tell your friends! Encourage each other!

It all starts tomorrow! Please do not post a "placeholder" thread. I'll change the title of this thread and remove the "Preview!" part to signal that it's time to start. You'll also notice that all of the current challenge's threads will be moved to Previous. The winner of the October Challenge will be announced tomorrow!

EDIT:

Start your engines!

Now, about that prize! Here's the deal: www.simplymaya.com AND www.simplylightwave.com will be participating in this challenge.

Grand Prize
http://www.simplylightwave.com/images/comp/prize.jpg
The Art of 3-D Computer Animation and Effects.
ONE (1) winner chosen from both SM and SL's Normal entries.
The "fewer than 5 people" rule will mean if fewer than 5 people enter from both SM and SL. So, if 4 people finish here, and only 1 at the other, the prize will still be granted to a winner.

Keep in mind this applies only to Normal Entries. If we have 80 noobs and only 2 norms... no prize.

In addition, a winner will be chosen from their respective sites in both Norm and Noob categories and will be rewarded points, like always. Depending on the number of entries, this may or may not be the same person as the grand prize winner.

Have fun!

(thx to mike for the great challenge)

[Kvaalen]

I found that I've been having a bit of free time lately.
So I was wondering... Can we make cartoon style characters?
It's just not mentioned anywhere and it seems like no one is doing that.

[puppet]

O_o

id enter if i could understand what you have to do

[mtmckinley]

toon is fine. As long as it's not toon versions of the fantasy/medieval genre.

I'll try to simplifiy it for you:

Take a Lord of the Rings character and make them in a style other than the fantasy/medieval style portrayed in the books and movies.

The only other rule is to give the characters one of their character-defining items. Gimli with a beard and axe, for example. Now, there's no rule that it can't be a super-laser axe, but an axe all the same.

Hope that clears it up some.

[puppet]

ahhhhhhhhhhhhh ok i get it now

[Kvaalen]

Originally posted by mtmckinley toon is fine. As long as it's not toon versions of the fantasy/medieval genre. I'll try to simplifiy it for you: Take a Lord of the Rings character and make them in a style other than the fantasy/medieval style portrayed in the books and movies. The only other rule is to give the characters one of their character-defining items. Gimli with a beard and axe, for example. Now, there's no rule that it can't be a super-laser axe, but an axe all the same. Hope that clears it up some.

Hmmmmm.... sounds tempting, but what if the character doesn't have an item that defins him?

And can the genre be from another movie? (or like the style of that movie.)

[mtmckinley]

Well, if you'd like, suggestions can be made regarding what kind of item the chosen character could have.

Anything is allowed other than fantasy/medieval.

[Kvaalen]

Ok, I think I'll join (as normal not newbee ). I'll probably have something to post by tomarrow.

[illustrativ]

Could we do some post work on the renders, say i rendered them into passes and wanted to tweak it after could i do that or would that be against competition rules?

[mtmckinley]

post a shot straight from the render as well as the one using any post work so we can see both.

[mtmckinley]

We're heading into the final stretch!

As of this writing, there are only 4 finished Normal entries (3 at SM, 1 here). We need 1 more valid, final entry before the grand prize can be given away! Otherwise, we'll need to try again next time.

And when I say valid, I mean a real, final entry... not something someone just posts to get it to 5 entries without actually finishing.

Because of the holidays, final judging, winner announcements, and the next challenge may be delayed a few days.

Also, please give us feedback. This was our first 2 month challenge... Do you feel that 2 months was adequate time? Too long? Let us know!

Thanks!

[DigiMatt]

Its sad so few entries has been finnished.
I think a 2 month period is good, it would certanly work better for me.

[Kvaalen]

I doubt we are going to have 5. Only 1 hour left.
Too bad.

Does the winner get points anyway? And will we be able to know who wins between the 4 who posted their final work even if they are from the 2 different sites?

Personally, I think 2 months is more than enough. I get the impression that people start and then forget about it and don't feel like finishing it.

[mtmckinley]

Whether or not the grand prize is given away, points will be awarded to the winners of their respective sites. Depending on how it works out, the same person who wins the grand prize may also get the 5 points for winning the norm category of his respective site as well.

[R4s1n]

if i knew how to spline when i started the project i would be able to finish the whole thing but unfortunately i just learned how to use them
Well maybe next time....